CodeWarrior Learning Edition

In the previous issue of Developer Central, I took a look at Metrowerks'
Code Warrior, a $599 full-featured IDE, compiler, linker, and debugger
for C, C++, or Java code. This issue, they sent me a copy of their Learning
Edition, which is aimed at new developers trying to come up to speed on
C++ or Java.

The Learning Edition has nearly all of the features of the full package.
It manages projects consisting of multiple files well, and jumps back
and forth between files, headers, and symbols easily. There's support
for MFC 6 and ATL 3.0 on the C++ side, and JDK 1.3 on the Java side. The
graphical diff and merge tool is fast and well- designed. You get Metrowerk's
own thread-safe standard libraries as well.

In addition, you also get a set of multimedia tutorials. These assume
that you don't know anything about coding with an IDE, and start by explaining
basic notions of a project and how to add and remove files. The tutorials
will teach you how to build, execute, and debug a project, but they don't
cover any of the basic language syntax. You'll find some of that in the
extensive documentation for Code Warrior itself, but if you really are
a beginner you'll want a good book as well. You can also get started on
learning the languages at http://codewarrioru.com/, their free tutorial
site.

Oddly enough, the CD did not create a shortcut to the tutorial; I had
to find it myself by prowling around on the hard drive.

So what's missing? You can only build applications, not libraries, and
there's a limit on the number of files that you can add. Advanced code
optimizations are disabled in the Learning Edition, as are makefile exports
and version control integration. And although the package included both
Windows and Mac CD-ROMs, cross- platform support is limited compared to
the full package.

Still, $79 is quite a deal for a full-featured C++ and Java IDE. If you
want to dabble but aren't sure that you want to invest yet, give it a
spin.

[This review originally appeared in developer central 1.11.editor]
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About the Author

Mike Gunderloy, MCSE, MCSD, MCDBA, is a former MCP columnist and the author of numerous development books.